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Monday, November 28, 2005

William Rasberry makes a good point in his syndicated column today, about the state of affairs over Iraq.

He's correct in the fact that Democrats, and some Republican's, like Colin Powell, do have buyers remorse over the Iraq war, and the intelligence used to get us there. As Powell has pointed out, some folks in the intelligence community knew some of the evidence was shaky, but didn't speak out.(click "read the full post" for the rest of the story) Bill is wrong in his assertation that the Congressional Vote in 2002 wasn't a vote for war, but a vote to authorize the use of force? Huh? He even compares it to a union voting to authorize a strike, saying it doesn't mean it will happen. Hey Bill, we waited 6 months after that vote to start dropping bombs, and then after a large number of milestones set forth in the authorization, and by the UN were not met.

This quote from his column sums up the Democratic Strategy:

And sometimes by simply noting that the Democrats don't have an exit strategy, either.

Of course they don't.

If the Democrats had their own Karl Rove, he'd probably tell them not to even try to come up with one.

If a sound exit plan means getting out without leaving Iraq less stable than it is now, and with a reasonable chance of becoming an American-style democracy, nobody has one.

He's wrong on that, the exit strategy that works is to wait until Iraq's military can handle the job of security, as the President has been saying all along. The problem with the plan is it isnt' going to be soon enough for certain folks. (more on the exit strategy by the Post's Dan Froomkin)

He continues:

It would be a no-lose position, politically, for the Democrats to sit backand watch the catastrophe happen.

But the quagmire in Iraq involves much more than politics. It involves national honor, the undiminished threat of international terrorism -- and the lives of too many people who deserve better.

It's hardly the time for clever politics.

On that point he's almost right. Iraq is a quagmire only in the media and certain circles who've become addicted to a 24 hour news cycle. We can't understand why the major part of the war can be over before dinner, but the hard part is taking so long because we are always looking for a quick finish on everything.

And I believe what he's trying to say is it's time for the folks in DC to all work together, to come up with a workable strategy. Political gain shouldn't be the driving force in the Iraq strategy at this point.

I'll go farther, and say that politically, it may end up biting the democrats in the butt in the mid term elections. If the GOP can come up with a coherent message on Iraq and the exit strategy, the Dem's will once again look like the followers, and/or complainers. And the last two congressional elections have shown that we really aren't in the mood for those.

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"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature who can never be free except made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." --John Stuart Mill